President Donald Trump was “pressed” during a phone call Sunday by the leader of a major U.S. ally to not pursue a ceasefire with Iran, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, citing an unnamed source.
“[Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed President Trump in a phone call yesterday not to pursue a ceasefire at this stage and expressed concern over the risks involved in such a move, an Israeli source said,” Ravid said on Monday in a social media post on X, according to an automatic translation of the original post’s Hebrew text.
"Trump told Netanyahu that if Iran agrees to the US demands, a ceasefire might be achieved, but he emphasized that he would not back down from his demand that Iran hand over all the enriched uranium in its possession and agree not to resume enrichment, according to the Israeli source."
Last month, Bloomberg reported that Trump’s decision to launch an attack on Iran was “partly motivated by pressure from outside allies,” including Netanyahu, who’s currently wanted by the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes.
Also last month, Trump’s head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, resigned in opposition to the U.S. war against Iran, accusing Israel in his resignation letter of having manipulated Trump into launching the conflict that has proven unpopular with a majority of Americans.